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Topic: Anyone out there? (Read 5048 times)

So, are there any other XData users on the forum? I know quite a few people circumvent it by embedding Xpress Tags into their data and importing it, but XData is such a joy to use and probably more flexible than the above?

When you get your prototype right, and 10,000 records flow into Quark, formatted, styled and ready to print, it is a huge buzz, especially remembering that some of these jobs used to take 3 days to style up.

Right, here I am (except I'm about to be away for a week...) ready to discuss, help and generally promote XData. Hope to see this forum buzzing soon.

Well, I've been using this great software for 4 years to produce our international automotive parts product catalogues and I really appreciate how quick it is to design automated pages from spreadsheets. No "gas factory" as we say in French.

I wouldn't change for another solution unless it proves easier, quicker and and user-friendly.

and welcome to this forum. I too been using Xtags (a sister XTension) for quite a while and I am still amazed at how it handles and also at the level of professionalism displayed by Em Software's employees.

I recently wrote them to talk about some improvements I would like to see added and I was stunned to have some of them implemented within days fo writing in.

Needless to say, I also wrote them, as I hear others have done as well, to tell them about THIS forum and I was told that they would keep an eye on it (thanks to RSS feed).

I loss count of the number of Xtags I "sold" for them, I believe so much in the product. I wonder how many more I need to sell to get my free t-shirt or my set of steak knifes?

Well, I got a free Quark 7 XData update for my advocacy! Except we have yet to purchase quark 7, so it's just sort of languishing.

I use XData for BIG THINGS and little things.

BIG THINGS - formatting the index for the Argos catalogue, 1500+ lines of headings, subheadings and items with page ranges from Excel.- Long listings, where there are multiple columns, some bold, some italic, sometimes the whole thing over a red rule when the saving is over 50%, etc etc.

little things - in another catalogue, every item over £100 had a couple of lines describing the cost if they paid for it over 50, 100 or 150 weeks - initial payment, monthly payments, and total credit price. These were all in Excel. So every time it was used it was only one record, but saved SO MUCH time - otherwise people were copying the numbers from Excel, pasting them into Quark then putting in all the other text bits.

I quite often just use it as a means to an end - if I want to extract only column one (part numbers) from an existing table of prices and stuff. Just copy it and use a prototype which is simply

«a»return

Or to reorder columns - «b» tab «a»

I also use XCatalog to price a 450 page catalogue - now that the links are in place, we just automatically zero all prices at the beginning of a new edition, and at the last minute they supply the prices in an Excel file and we can just pop them into the pages. I get a buzz every time - in the old days we would have been typing in every damn price!

And as Michel says, they are a really professional bunch of people who respond quickly and helpfully. Quark could learn a thing or two from these guys!

I just did a Gardening Catalogue/Book/thingy which listed the usual, plants, species, conditions, which all had the same formatting symbols (rain, clouds etc).This was supplied as an excel document, 300 pages turned into a breeze instead of the nightmare I was looking at before I remembered about this jem of a software...

I'm recent on this forum and It's good to be able to discuss with other Xdata users from our small planet.

Indeed, I must go on the web to meet some Xdata users since I hardly know others around me, except one printer I've known for years. So It's sometimes hard to progress despite the English tutorial.

To design our product catalogues with vehicle applications , commercial data and technical data, I mostly use variables which I parametrize before displaying the information, especially when i must deal with many lines to be displayed (for one Excel record). I must counter the number of lines to come in order to know when I must change text block.

For me, linking the information to be displayed with the position in the page is a real issue. I use "counter" variables to do that (in Points). Well, I hope I'm clear.

I am also a user and promoter of InData and InCatalog and the Quark versions as well. Generally helping clients with training and configuration of templates and EM scripts to run the solution they are seeking.

So good to find others to bounce off various problems, but as I describe this type of solution to clients, it is a delicate balance of data, design and code to build great things FAST. For when you get it right it is a thing of beauty.

Hi-I just joined the forum because I've been searching (for a long time) for a place to discuss what I do at work. I'm basically a glorified Desktop Publisher, working with all the usual apps; Quark, Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign, Word, Xcel, Acrobat, and so on and so forth. My specialty is variable data publishing using Xdata or InData. I look forward to future discussions, brainstorming and problem solving.Andrew

I started this forum for the same reasons, I heard about an email list bit that was (is) for XData only (Being more a XTags guy myself). I thought that all of EmSoftwares' products deserved such a place.

You are of course more than welcome to share your kudos and wish list. I read your reply about auto-sizin text to a text box on the Quark Forum and I found it quite impressive... Too bad I do not have a need for it